VANCOUVER – The grassroots group Fight HST says the BC Liberal government is blowing negotiations with the federal Conservative government to end the Harmonized Sales Tax, costing BC taxpayers hundreds of millions through incompetence.

And Fight HST, which initiated and won the binding referendum to get rid of the HST, says it will make the failure to promptly end the tax an issue in two by-elections in Port Moody-Coquitlam and Chilliwack-Hope that must be called by Premier Christy Clark in the next few months.

“Premier Christy Clark and Finance Minister Kevin Falcon repeatedly said during the HST referendum that BC had to pay back the full $1.6 billion as a scare tactic to frighten voters into keeping the HST,” Vander Zalm said.“But Fight HST always said that repayment of the federal grant must be pro-rated to whatever length of time the HST was in place for in BC.”

“Premier Clark rejected our position then and now she is trying to get the federal Conservatives to accept that position – no wonder they’re saying no thanks,” Vander Zalm said.

“And the federal government and provincial government have both collected hundreds of millions in extra taxes thanks to the HST – why would they hurry to get rid of it?” Vander Zalm asked.“But they imposed the HST in just a few months – they could eliminate it just as quickly – and that’s what the legislation passed by the people requires.”

Fight HST Lead Organizer Chris Delaney points out that the BC Liberals have also contradicted their own negotiating position with Ottawa.

“Finance Minister Falcon said the BC Liberals wouldn’t negotiate ending the HST in public and now Premier Clark is doing exactly that, with predictably bad results,” Delaney said.“They are playing amateur hour with hundreds of millions and the BC economy at stake.”

“Consumers are paying too much on hundreds of goods and services that were never subject to a 12% HST in the past – from new homes to renovations to restaurant food to hair cuts to domestic airline tickets,” he said. “The delay in ending the HST is hurting our economy.”

Fight HST Strategist Bill Tieleman says the Minister Falcon’s claims that reinstating the Provincial Sales Tax and federal Goods and Services Tax to replace the HST will take more than 18 months is ridiculous given that the HST was imposed in less than one year.

“Voters clearly said in August with the binding referendum results that they wanted the HST gone as soon as possible – not in 18 to 24 months,” Tieleman said.

“If the government won’t live up to the direction voters gave them in the binding referendum, we will make failure to end the HST promptly an issue in upcoming by-elections in Port Moody-Coquitlam and Chilliwack-Hope,” Tieleman said.

“Let’s see if voters in those two ridings are satisfied with paying the HST for months longer than necessary and let all parties competing tell them what they will do to speed things up,” Tieleman concluded.

Welcome to Fight HST's new website - and welcome to our continuing efforts to extinguish the Harmonized Sales Tax in British Columbia as soon as possible!

Although BC voters overwhelmingly rejected the HST in this summer's binding mail ballot referendum by a 55% to 45% margin, the BC Liberal government is now saying the HST will remain in place until March 2013 - that's unacceptable!

Fight HST is the grassroots organization that launched BC's first ever successful Citizens Initiative petition campaign in April 2010 by collecting over 705,000 voter signatures in every one of BC's 85 ridings and then won the provincial binding referendum in the summer of 2011.

Please continue to check in here and to give your thoughts on how we can speed up the process of getting rid of the HST and removing the extra 7% tax on hundreds of goods and services as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately our previous Fight HST website was hacked after the referendum and is no longer operational - this blog website will be our new home for now.

You can also still find information and comment at the Facebook protest group page NO BC HST- which still has over 125,000 members!